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2/8/2013 2:06PM

Opinion: Obama's Call to Arms in Syria

Jonathan Schanzer, vice president of research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracy, on why President Obama rejected advice by his Defense and State Department to help arm the rebels in Syria. Photo: Getty Images

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

... I ... opinion Journal why I'm Mary Kissel ... the world is a dangerous place in there a lots of questions ... about how a second term Obama administration is handling eruptions ... in Africa in Syria in Iran but we're going to start first with Syria we cut Foundation for Defense of democracies ... vice president of research Jonathan chance or joining me now ... to talk about the latest headline out of yesterday's Senate testimony Jonathan ... the White House as they did not armed the rebels in Syria ... against the wishes of the C I a Defense Department ... that is that really the full story ... well it appears to be the story that the present Obama has gone against his and his top advisors with the exception of Susan Rice who always to arm the rebels in some shape or form ... this is ... I think the extension of of of a broader policy it is simply not wanting to get to know who the rebels are the ones we can trust ... holding them at arm's length in all the while allowing sixty five thousand people to be mowed down by the outside regime but Jonathan isn't really correct to say that were not arming the rebels ... if we're ... training fighters and potentially getting them arms through ... some of our allies in the region is that the full story ... all we're certainly sub contracting out our Syria policy we've got the Turks ... he got the cuts are East potentially the Saudis ... other is there a number of regional actors who are getting involved here the problem is that we have very little to do with exactly what's happening on the ground ... we cannot put some of the scale sinks in place to make sure that we don't have blowback ... along the lines of what happened in Afghanistan in the nineteen eighties ... there is we seen this movie before we know how it ends ... we allow the Saudis and the Pakistanis to get involved with the Mujahideen problem ... against the Soviets nineteen eighties and look for that landed us ... in pay Jonathan but in Syria it sounds like another leading from behind effort ... why would the president beyond willing to put his fingerprints on helping freedom fighters ... you know I have to tell you I I still don't understand exactly what the the hesitancy ... is all about ... if you look at what we've done in other countries around the Middle East particularly look what happened in Libya ... our fingerprints were all over that there was a broad deal for the United States ... was part of it ... and we in short that that that the Libyan ... military was not able to bomb the opposition in fact when you heard what what presidents of bombers reasoning was for getting above the city this try to prevent a massacre in big Ozzie what tell ... tale almost two years later in Syria we got massacre is over and over and over again again sixty five thousand people killed ... I can't imagine what has been holding the president back but according to these reports it was basically just him and Susan Rice were the lone holdouts your ... ultimately decided this policy of inaction in Syria and I wonder what Valerie Jarrett had to say about that to you although we may never know ... I want to go to Libya now Jonathan ... we had testimony yesterday from Defense Secretary banana ... General Martin Dempsey ... talking about the nine eleven debacle four Americans killed ... they said they only spoke with the president wants when you make of that ... well I mean this is we can see here about how there was not enough response coming from the highest echelons of the U S government ... obviously the of the testimony by former Secretary State Hillary Clinton ... reinforce that on some level of the bottom line is there is a narrative that was going on time and within the administration that al-Qaeda was largely defeated ... and al Qaeda was on its heels and I and and what was happening on nine eleven of last year ... really flew in the face of that narrative ... I think there is ... a ... sense among the top officials they didn't want to to really engage on this ... what exactly happened on that day how much the other top officials were involved ... I'm not sure will know that of course the reports we're getting ... are extremely troubling Jonathan does this mean a picture of the president is just ... not interested in foreign policy ... I e in it his top advisors don't know to call in to keep them updated ... on what's going on in the attack on our people in Libya ... he doesn't wanna get involved in the dirt of the ... inning arming the Syrian rebels ... I he wants to talk to Iran ... it's going on ... you know I have to tell you I'm very I'm not sure I understand exactly what our foreign policy is that this time ... you know you look at what's happened in the Arab spring we let some of our top allies goes on to say that the warrant dictators certainly ... has the Mubarak ... and in Ali were dictators but they were friends of the United States ... even Moammar Gadhafi Huaxia's Iwas who had largely been neutered ... we had we had no reason to to jettison these guys ... unnecessarily again and a nice not to say that there are people in these countries more upset with them ... but so what were doing that were also allowing are valid enemies Syria for example at a state sponsor of terror since nineteen eighty three were allowing asset to stay in power we have no policy of toppling ... the look of what happened in Iran during the green revolution we stayed out of the green revolution entirely ... rather than looking for ways to topple Iran which is striving for towards a nuclear weapon ... we have the stereo peak for policy rate now under this president ... can make no mistake about it the president drives foreign policy is the president's prerogative ... this president has not made itself very clear our allies and our enemies are keenly aware of the ... very opaque opaque foreign policy under this president ... Foundation for Defense of democracies ... Jonathan Chan Sir thank you so much for being with us ...